First report of cacao pod rot caused by Diaporthe tulliensis in the Philippines

Mike Andre C. Malonzo, Shunsuke Nozawa, Celynne Ocampo-Padilla, Jerwin Ramos Undan, Renato G. Reyes, Kyoko Watanabe

In 2023, a cacao pod in the fields of Aurora, Philippines exhibited a symptom such as brown surface lesion with internal rot. A single-spore isolate obtained from the pod successfully reproduced the original symptom on cacao pods and demonstrated pathogenicity on leaves. The isolate was identified as Diaporthe tulliensis R.G. Shivas, Vawdrey & Y.P. Tan through morphological and phylogenetic analyses using a concatenated sequence dataset of ITS, tef1, tub2, cal, and his3. This study represents the first report of D. tulliensis as a causal agent of cacao pod rot in the Philippines.

Journal of General Plant Pathology

Springer Nature Link

92

130

DOI:10.1007/s10327-025-01268-7